Controlling Street Rats Population in a Specific Area?

Life Pets & Other Animals
#1

Can it be done? I’ve seen the small live traps used to catch rats. I’m sure I could get my hands on a few of them. Would that be enough?

I’m not worried about the rats getting into our dog pen since I’ve seen both how this gentle mother can become aggressive to protect her litter and how dogs handle rats in general. I don’t think any rat in its right mind(instinct) would venture in there when the mother is there. I think the rats would be pretty intimidated with 9 pups too, so I’m not worried about it when I walk the mother either.

Our doggy house is built against a big metal factory, like an addition you could say. This factory is where our lady friend feeds the strays daily. All of them are very healthy. She hires a vet to come on site every year to vaccinate all the dogs. She’s just amazing. She is the dog angel around here. Anyways, whenever I go out to walk the dogs at night, the lady is either there already or the rats see me coming before I see them because I seldom see rats. Until now… Now that we have this mini-holding center, I pull in often with my scooter at night, headlights on, and I surprise the rats. Tonight, I think I saw something like six at once crawling back under the tin walls of the metal factory. They obviously love dog food.

The lady’s been feeding the dogs for years in this location, and the rats too… There has to be so many… I don’t want to use poison, can I help this pest problem without killing the little rodents?

I’m going to try anyways. I’ll take pics of all the rats I capture and maybe we can give them all names as I post their pics in this thread. :wink:

Seriously, there’s just too many there and I am concerned that it’s a potential danger for the dog’s health. I don’t want to start killing rats, but I’d like to help this problem.

Where is a decent place to release the rats? In the forest? Would anyone want to adopt or foster a wild rat? :wink: I suppose I’ll just have to find a place to relocate them. Do you think it would be just a waste of time? Or would I notice a worthy decrease in rat population around the metal factory?

Just thinking out loud here. I have very little knowledge concerning rats.

#2

We just got told by the vet today that our oldest cat (around 14) might have picked up a nasty bacterial infection spread by rats, even though he hasn’t been outside for months. We live in an actual house so we have a yard, but the dog and another cat live out there, plus I’ve never seen any small animals there except for those money mice things, which aren’t rodents at all but shrews.
Personally I’d kill as many of them as I could but without using poison – much too dangerous with other animals around.
I think this infection could kill the cat, which would be a real bummer as I’ve had him nearly the whole time I’ve been in Taiwan.

#3

hope none of you is still “french-kissing” your pet dog…

we live not far from a traditional market, so there are a lot of rats in the gutter, luckily there are a lot of stray cats as well, they should do some controlling. what infuriates me are those old ladies feeding pigeons in the nearby park, rats love those breadcrumbs too… toddlers playing on the ground… you get the picture…

the sign that says “No feeding pigeons” is, of course, ignored…

#4

Sorry to hear about your cat Sandman. Do the vet know for sure that’s what’s wrong with your cat? Did they test for this infection or is it a guess like diagnosis?

When I built our doggy house, I bleached everything in and out and even the ground around it. Problem is, just like your dog, the mother goes in and out. She managed to chew right through a wall last night and she got out. When I checked on her this morning she was back in but she used her escape route to come greet me. :s So now I made the hole bigger and I installed a flap door so that she can go in and out as she please, but the pups can not. Not yet anyways…

I thought about killing the rats too. The traps are small enough to fit in a 5 gallon bucket. I could drown them one at the time easily. That’s the best way to kill them right? It’s not said that I will not do that because I’d hate to infect another neighbourhood with these pests and the nearest forest is quite a drive from where I live. Relocating them may not be time efficient at all. I could drop them off 5 city blocks away, but that just doesn’t sound right.

All the best with your cat.

#5

It’s just a tentative diagnosis. We have to take him back every day for the next few days for immune-boosting shots, but the vet says he can’t do the testing – we’d need to take the cat to the Taida animal hospital for that.

If you catch your rats and take them to a forest, they’ll either find their way back to someone else’s neighbourhood and infest that area, or they’d starve – they’re not equipped to survive away from humans. So you’re looking at either a death sentence or “giving” them to someone else, whatever happens. It’s not pleasant, but yeah, you’re going to have to kill them.
Probably the least stressful for them would be to enclose them with some burning charcoal. CO poisoning is supposed to be a relatively “easy” shuffle off this mortal coil. A lot less onerous than drowning them, at least.

#6

[quote=“sandman”]
Probably the least stressful for them would be to enclose them with some burning charcoal. CO poisoning is supposed to be a relatively “easy” shuffle off this mortal coil. A lot less onerous than drowning them, at least.[/quote]Hmmm. I did not even think about that. I think they’d just end up falling asleep that way. Much better.

I suggest you get a second and even a third opinion on your cat’s condition and perhaps take it in for proper tests too. As you probably know, tentative diagnosis can sometimes vary a whole lot from one vet to another, and so does the according treatment. With an infection that has the potential to kill your cat, proper diagnosis seems to be your best bet to ensure your cat gets the most appropriate treatment.

Best of luck and fingers crossed for the little guy.

#7

Maybe your dog just needs the proper encouragement.

terrierman.com/ratdog.htm

#8

Yeah, we were never without at least a couple of Jack Russells about the place to keep the rats down when we were training gundogs and raising pheasants. Invaluable, very easy to train, great fun to work and a joy to own if you can maintain a firm hand with them – they can be … er … personable, let’s say! They were the only dogs we had that were allowed into the house (mainly because it was just too difficult to keep the little bastards out.)
And by coincidence, I saw my first one in Taiwan just this morning.
They’re really fantastic little dogs and are still among my favourite breeds.

#9

What’s Ma go to do with it ? I thought you were in Gaoxiong ?

I see the stray cats near me dealing with rats. Shows they are not all bad.

#10

I finally got around to buying live traps last Sunday. 45NT each. I bought four. I set them up the same night with hotdogs as bait.

The next morning, all the traps had been triggered, the hotdogs were gone and two traps had an animal in them. The first one was a lizard. I see those lizards on rainy days, very fast little buggers. The other cage had a small rat in it. Strangely enough, it was the only cage that had some hotdogs left. The little pest did not eat it.

Last night I resetted the traps, but I had no meat. So I used marshmallows. This morning, all the traps were triggered and the marshmallows were intact in three out of four cages. Only one rat. The rat nibbled at the marsmallow by the look of it. Weird thing is, the rat was already dead when I got there. Out cold. Does that mean marshmallow is poison to rats? Did the little guy have a heart attack trying to get out? Very weird. I’m trying with marshamallows again tonight, I guess I’ll find out.

#11

I was afraid to click this thread, bobepine. Rats and mice scare the living daylights out of me. When I see a big black rat I actually gag and I have to keep telling my mind that the rat is over there and I am over here so I feel safer. Maybe in a previous life I was eaten alive by big black greasy-looking beady-eyed sewer rats.

Good luck on catching those rats! Yeah yeah, animal loving and all…but rats aren’t real animals and I’m sticking to it!

#12

[quote=“914”]When I see a big black rat I actually gag and I have to keep telling my mind that the rat is over there and I am over here so I feel safer. [/quote]I believe you. The lady who feeds the dogs outside my house had a severe reaction to the sight of one dead rat yesterday. At first, I thought she was being unreasonable. I didn’t think much of it, I dumped the rat out of the cage. It was obvious that it was dead, yet the lady screamed and ran away. I felt bad, it looked like she was going to have a heart attack. Heavy breathing and everything. :blush: Some people just really don’t like the little pests.

The rats I caught were small. I think the bigger ones are somewhat smarter and harder to catch. On my way down any minute now to see how the traps did last night. I’ll keep you guys posted on the marsmallow mystery. :wink:

#13

It actually helps a lot to watch programs on Animal Planet to overcome the fear of rats, snakes, spiders and the other usual suspects.

A few days ago, I saw a small spider in the kitchen. Not wanting to kill anything living at that moment, I covered the spider with a sheet of tissue, grabbed the little bugger softly, and released it outside. I used to be arachnophobic (correct spelling?)

Of course, next time I meet a rat, I’ll need more than tissue paper…

#14

So what did you with the live rats tht you caught? What about taking them to a nearby pet shop that has snakes, they might even pay you 10NT for each one. Think about it like recycling or getting trash off the streets. Are you Buddhist, is that why you can’t kill the dirty pestilent vermin? If the snake kills them, you wouldn’t actually be doing it would you? The rat would have a fighting chance too.

#15

No, more like a moodist. :wink:

I destroyed the rats. Something I don’t enjoy doing. I caught many more since my last post in this thread. I caught at least 12 now. Only one mature rat, and the rest were all little ones. The big one looked old and rough, and it was very aggresive, but the little ones were cute. They look like gerbils.

I don’t have a problem with the animals themselves. What I have a problem with is the diseases they spread with their feces. Still, I find it feels weird to destroy one specy in order to avoid potential harm to another. Your post, however, helps me come to terms with that…

#16

Doubt it. The rat was probably diseased already. I hope you dispose of the dead rats in a safe manner: that is-not throw it out in the field so that a disease could be passed on to whatever.